Thursday, August 27, 2009

Going to be an interesting night

The Station Fire is burning about a mile from our house. They've apparently started to evacuate some of the nearby neighborhoods. We've started packing up some things, staging the fire pump by the pool. Probably not going to get a lot of sleep tonight. Thankfully, there's not a lot of wind or we'd probably be toast (a little dry humor for the occasion).

Pray for us. It can't hurt. (Update: and for the folks down in Rancho Palos Verdes. They seem to be in much worse shape down there than we are.)

[Update at 11:32] Just heard on the news that there are no mandatory evacuations yet, and there are still a couple of canyons between us and the fire. Still no wind. So we're OK for the time being.

[Update at 11:49] Never really had to think seriously about what to save if the house burned down. We have a ton of stuff. Most of it is replaceable, but a lot isn't, and a lot of what isn't replaceable is heavy (photo albums) or awkward (we have a ton of art). How much of it should we try to save? How paranoid should we be? Should we go ahead and load it all into our cars? What about the stuff that just has sentimental value, like my AdWords Launch lava lamp, or the stuffed gorilla from the "gorilla marketing" campaign from two startups ago? Should we take clothes? Toothbrushes? Happily, all this still appears to be academic at this point. But the glow of the fire is clearly visible over the ridge line behind our house.

[Update at 1:00 AM] I think we've done all we can to prepare, and everything seems quiet outside, so I'm actually going to try to get some sleep.